Indice
a cura della Redazione di Civiltà e Religioni
The concluding book of Statius’ Thebaid (Book 12) focuses on funeral rites for the Thebans and Argives who fell in battle, highlighting a pivotal episode in which Argive widows seek solace at Athens’ ara clementiae (‘altar of mercy’). Clementia is represented both as a deity with a physical altar consecrated by the ‘wretched’ (miseri), and as one who inhabits her worshippers, thereby exercising an attributed religious agency through human embodiment. While traditionally examined through an ethical-political perspective, the religious dimension of clementia’s worship is essential for fully contextualising her role in Statius’ account. This paper argues that the poet deliberately integrates clementia’s portrayal into a
mythic religious framework in order to redefine the conventional divine–human boundary of his time. By accentuating her bodily presence within devotees, Statius transforms clementia from an imperial virtue associated with monarchical authority into a deity whose embodiment within individuals helps to liberate them from oppression. This contribution thus places clementia within broader discourses concerning Roman religion and power in the Imperial period.
The present paper attempts to discuss the relation between divine property and boundaries by focusing on Palladius’ Lausiac History 32-34 as a main case study. The liminality of monastic spaces and the crossable boundaries between opposite areas contribute to the creation of a rigorously property-related monastic framework. Most importantly, the internal organization of daily life behind the walls of the monasteries reflected the same structure as the secular world, with well-defined forms of self-management in the division of labor. However, despite both the well-organized nature of their working activity and their economic relations with the world outside, monasteries were conceived as a property whose buildings were endowed with a certain degree of sacredness. As both the residence of God and a place where holiness finds its natural abode, monasteries were considered as a heavenly space where monks and nuns ascend to the role of intermediaries between humans and the divine.
This essay aims to examine the phenomenon of boundary violations in relation to the Christian res Dei, with particular attention to the transfer of private property to the Church. Such property was no longer regarded as either private or ecclesiastical, but as divine, being considered to belong to God and his saints. The analysis focuses on canonical legislation in Gaul, the Iberian Peninsula, and Africa Proconsularis between the 4th and 6th century, as the Christian divine property (res Dei) found its fullest expression beginning in the Constantinian era. This development was made possible by the recognition of Christianity as a religio licita and the consequent opportunity to donate wealth and possessions to the Church as acts of devotion to God and the saints. This practice thus brought about a form of “material” union between heaven and earth, and laid the foundations for the Church’s temporal authority over goods regarded as inalienable and inviolable, as they were considered part of the res Dei. Canonical prescriptions and rulings were therefore aimed at delineating boundaries in order to protect and expand the res Dei, thereby safeguarding the proprietary and hereditary rights of the Church.
The aim of this paper is to analyse the notion of property within the medieval tradition of furta sacra – hagiographic accounts of the thefts of relics or the bodies of saints – focusing on how it is conceived, violated, or reconstructed. I will examine a corpus of tales from early medieval Italy, describing thefts that took place between the seventh and ninth centuries, to highlight several key aspects, including: the violation of a sanctuary’s property through attempted misappropriation, often prompted by a supernatural agency (i.e. the saints themselves); reflections on the ownership of relics based on hagiographical sources, and the legitimacy of their transfer without the shrine’s permission; the violation of sacred spaces in relation to the transference of sacredness from one place to another; and the relocation of relics, with specific rites performed to establish a new dwelling for the saint. At the same time, the theme of freedom will also be explored. In many cases of theft, two different perspectives emerge: the possibility that the saint is free to cease protecting a city, comply with the appropriation, and “reside” elsewhere; and the notion that the saint – particularly the saint’s body – can be regarded as a prisoner, deprived of freedom.
Il contributo si propone di esaminare l’intersezione tra la Storia delle Religioni e l’impiego delle Intelligenze Artificiali quali strumenti metodologici ausiliari nella ricerca accademica. L’indagine esplora la possibilità di integrare il metodo storico-comparativo con l’IA, considerando le implicazioni etiche, sociali e deontologiche di tale sinergia. A partire dalle categorie interpretative della disciplina storico-religiosa, vengono analizzati benefici e limiti dell’uso delle IA generative negli studi storico-comparativi, valutando le potenzialità dell’addestramento di un sistema RAG applicato a casi specifici. Tale innovativo strumento di indagine potrà facilitare la ricostruzione dei fatti religiosi, come dimostrato nel caso studio sulla nozione di “pace” negli scritti di Giovanni Damasceno. La ricerca, collocandosi nel dibattito sulle Digital Humanities, propone una metodologia che unisce rigore storico-filologico e strumenti computazionali avanzati, per sviluppare modelli interpretativi utili alla comunità internazionale nel promuovere un dialogo irenico interculturale.
di Francesco Spagna, Federico Casella, Davide Torri, Paolo Scarpi, Fabrizio Ferrari, Chiara Cremonesi, Michela Zago
